Unboxing the art of board games

It is not an easy task to create art that draws you closer with a vivid and magical atmosphere that matches the one in the fairy tales of Lewis Carrol. If you attend Gen Con you can experience just that in the game “Hats” designed by Gabriele Bubola and released by Thundergryph Games. Let me present you the incredibly talented artist Paolo Voto from Bologna in Italy.

Tell us a little about your artistic background?

My journey in the illustration world began as a child. I cannot tell exactly when because, from what I remember, I demonstrated a great interest for drawing straightaway. For this reason, I have studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts for a couple of years. Indeed due to personal circumstances, I did not graduate.

The first professional tool which gave me the chance to earn some money is the airbrush pen. The same I have used to customize several choppers motorcycles. After that, I worked for a confectionary company where I used to decorate chocolate eggs and similar products for many years.

Meanwhile, I came closer to digital, I made my first illustrations with Photoshop getting more and more skilled.

I regularly visit ‘art & graphic design for tabletop gaming‘ on facebook – mostly to learn from the different feedback on art. I cam across the works of Shirin Rafie from Singapore on the game Jumpship. The kickstarter for Jumpship has gone under my radar and was apparently cancelled. It seems on the backers that they look forward to a re-launch. The game is available as Print and Play here. But the state of the game does not change the fact that the artwork on it is really incredible and personal. Enjoy the interview.

Tell us a little about your artistic background and how you got into making art for board games like Jumpship and March of Ants?

I got most of my art background from studying Animation in University, where back then I was very interested in developing my skills under pre-production and concept development.

I got into board games through a contact who eventually became a good friend of mine where he engaged me to work on art for various educational board games for schools. Having more familiarity with job scopes like these, I took my chances in finding more work over at Board Game Geek in order to find more opportunities!

Sometimes the style you think you have is great until you fit them all together and realize that they don’t work well together with other nitty gritty things, like the font or the graphic design.

I recently posted an Instagram with the incredible box cover of ‘Between Two Castles’. The creator is the same polish artist that made the fantastic illustrations on ‘Dream Home‘ and ‘Spy Club‘ – Bartłomiej Kordowski. So I am happy to share his story here. enjoy.

Tell us very shortly about your artistic background and how you got into making art for board games?

In short, I always like to draw. As a kid, my parents and friends kept my passion, so I started to educate myself.

Surrounded by beautiful forests in a town called Murphysboro you will find Daryl. He is a board game artist that broke into the industry with a personal passion project – The Dobbers. With his recent wonderful contribution to the game Freshwater Fly ( Only a few hours left on the Kickstarter) – I knew that we had to pick his brain and feature him here. Enjoy.

Tell us a little about what you do, your artistic background and how you got into making art and now board games?

I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember. My passion to draw really ignited in the late 80’s and 90’s when I fell in love with Marvel comic books. I have a full set of the original Infinity Gauntlet comics sitting on my desk with me as I type this. I later went to the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, majoring in Sequential Art. Sequential Art is basically comic books. There is a heavy emphasis on Illustration and Graphic Design, particularly for the purpose of story-telling. After college, I independently published a comic book, The Dobbers. It was a light-hearted tale of gnome-like, forest creatures who stumble upon a quest involving a great deal of treasure and a magical sword.